Endoscope washer disinfector and brush cassette detachably loaded to the same

Abstract

An endoscope washer-disinfector cleans and disinfects an endoscope with a duct. A brush cassette is detachably loaded to a loading part of the washer-disinfector and comprises a brush element and a shaft holding the brush element. Inside the cassette, first and second members are formed to hold the shaft tight therebetween for making the shaft advance and retreat to and from the duct. A lock device separates the second member from the first member so that the second member is located at a first position. The lock device locks the separated second member, when the brush is not loaded on the loading part. When the cassette is loaded to the loading part, the lock device also unlocks the locked second member responsively to an operating force and allows the second member to be moved to a second position where the first and second members hold tight the shaft.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The patent application related to and incorporates by reference Japanese Patent application No. 2006-122392 filed on Apr. 26, 2006. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. The Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to an endoscope washer-disinfector capable of cleaning (or washing) ducts of an endoscope and a brush cassette detachably loaded to the endoscope washer-disinfector. [0004] 2. Related Art [0005] In medical therapy, one helpful means for inspecting and curing body cavities is to use an endoscope. The endoscope includes an insertion tube to be inserted to the body cavities. This insertion tube has various kinds of ducts (i.e., endoscopic channels or simply channels), such as a therapeutic-instrument insertion duct which also serves as a suction duct, a gas-feed and water-feed duct, and a forward water-feed duct, which are formed to run through the tube. Thus, when an endoscope is used once, body fluid and fecu...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] The present invention has been made in consideration of the foregoing conventional situations, and has an object to provide an endoscope washer-disinfector and a brush cassette detachably loaded to this endoscope washer-disinfector, which are able to secure a good cleaning performance by removing the affects depending on a period of time during which the brush cassette has not been in use, even if such a non-use period lasts long.

[0018] Accordingly, in the endoscope washer-disinfector and the brush cassette according to the present invention, the second member is located at the first position separated from the first position and locked thereat, when the brush cassette is not loaded on the loading part of the apparatus. Thus the shaft is not subjected to any pressing between the first and second members at all. The shaft intervening between the first and second members is therefore avoidable from being deformed. Thus, in using the brush cassette, the cleaning performance has no affections which result from a long-term non-use of the brush cassette. Thus a cleaning performance can still be maintained high.

Problems solved by technology

Thus, feculence easily adheres onto the ducts and is hard to be removed merely in a cleaning process conducted with the endoscope cleaning and disinfecting apparatus.

However, the above manual preliminary cleaning (i.e., manually inserting the cleaning brush into respective endoscope ducts and manually rubbing and cleaning the ducts) causes the operator to bear troublesome work.

This preliminary cleaning process results in an increase in work time required for the endoscope to be clean and disinfected.

However, the structure in which the shaft of the cleaning brush is held tight between the rotating roller and the guide member (auxiliary roller) suffers another problem.

This problem results from the fact that the rotating roller and the guide member always hold the shaft tightly such that both rollers are constantly pressed from each other.

This deformation, if happened, brings about a concern that the cleaning brush cannot be moved smoothly backward and forward in cleaning.

Another problem of the cleaning apparatus listed in the publication comes from the structure in which the rotating roller and the guide member are arranged within the brush cassette.

Hence it is impossible to visually observe the forgoing deformations which may occur inside the cassette.

Another problem is that it is difficult to visually determine after use whether the cleaning brush is a new one or a used one, because pulling back the brush from the cassette after a cleaning work creates the same appearance as that of the cassette which has not been in use yet, i.e., which is new.

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